The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Tempest
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: THE TEMPEST is the final volume of the League, commencing in summer 2018 as a 6 issue mini-series. Official Synopsis Six-issue miniseries will serve as "swan song" not only to award-winning LEAGUE series but also to creators' careers After an epic seventeen-year journey through the entirety of human culture – the biggest cross-continuity ‘universe’ that is conceivable – Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill will conclude both their legendary League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and their equally legendary comic-book careers with the series’ spectacular fourth and final volume, The Tempest. Tying up the slenderest of plot threads and allusions from the three preceding volumes, The Black Dossier, and the Nemo trilogy into a dazzling and ingenious bow, the world’s most accomplished and bad-tempered artist-writer team will use their most stylistically adventurous outing yet to display the glories of the medium they are leaving; to demonstrate the excitement that attracted them to the field in the first place; and to analyse, critically and entertainingly, the reasons for their departure. Opening simultaneously in the panic-stricken headquarters of British Military Intelligence, the fabled Ayesha’s lost African city of Kor and the domed citadel of ‘We’ on the devastated Earth of the year 2996, the dense and yet furiously-paced narrative hurtles like an express locomotive across the fictional globe from Lincoln Island to modern America to the Blazing World; from the Jacobean antiquity of Prospero’s Men to the superhero-inundated pastures of the present to the unimaginable reaches of a shimmering science-fiction future. With a cast-list that includes many of the most iconic figures from literature and pop culture, and a tempo that conveys the terrible momentum of inevitable events, this is literally and literarily the story to end all stories. Commencing as a six-issue run of unfashionable, outmoded and flimsy children’s comics that will make you appear emotionally backward if you read them on the bus, this climactic magnum opus will also reprint classic English super-team publication The Seven Stars from the murky black-and-white reaches of 1964. A magnificent celebration of everything comics were, are and could be, any appreciator or student of the medium would be unwise to miss The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: THE TEMPEST. Issue 1: Farewell To Forever Issue 1 was published on July 11th 2018 by Top Shelf in the USA and Knockabout in the UK. Plot Summary In 2009, in the fabled lost city of Kor in Uganda, Mina Murray, Orlando and Emma Night bathe in the mythical pool. This rejuvenates them, and grants Night eternal life as well as restoring her youthful appearance. In the apocalyptic future of 2996, in the futuristic city of We, Satin Astro and her lover Burt flee from the Lord Of Mars. Burt is captured but Satin Astro escapes and travels back in time to the 21st century in an Aeonosphere to warn the human race of an impending disaster. In 2009 at the British Intelligence headquarters in Vauxhall, London, an ill and elderly James Bond is briefed on the 2009 Moonchild catastrophe (which occurred 2 months prior). He is shown security footage of Orlando, as well as being informed of the details of the disappearance of the previous ‘M’, Emma Night. Night stole various documents from the headquarters (including the Black Dossier) before fleeing. Bond announces himself as the new ‘M’. Back in Kor, Murray, Orlando and Night discuss where they will go next. They cannot go back to British Intelligence due to Night’s desertion, and their status with Prospero and The Blazing World is unclear. They decide on Lincoln Island, despite being unfamiliar with Jack Dakkar, the current Nemo. In London, Satin Astro and Mars Man enter The Seven Stars’ former hideaway, The Star Chamber. They are seeking information about the other members of The Seven Stars in the filing system of Vull The Invisible (Mina Murray’s Seven Stars alter-ego). They discover that Zom The Zodiac was ‘discorporated’ by The Duke De Richeleu in 1966, and David Gaunt aka The Flash Avenger died of lung cancer in 1968. This leaves themselves, Vull, Captain Universe and Electro Girl as the remaining members of the Seven Stars. In Nacumera on the west coast of Africa, Murray, Orlando and Night intercept an Aquanaut security patrol submarine which is refuelling at the dock. Orlando attempts to negotiate with the Aquanauts, but when she is touched inappropriately, tears off the testicle of one of the men. Murray’s team then steal the submarine (named Dugong) and head for the South Pacific. Back at the MI5 headquarters, James Bond has recruited the ‘J-Series’ agents to aid him. These are the various incarnations of James Bond (such as Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Daniel Craig). MI5 have interrogated two associates of Emma Night to gain information on her whereabouts, and they implicated Cathy Gale, who Bond reminisces that he once had sex with. When Gale was interrogated, she revealed that she flew Night to Uganda before committing suicide. Following this lead, they discover security footage from Sierra Leone of the Murray team bound for Nacumera, and Bond recognises the rejuvenated Night. Realising that Murray’s fantastical league (which he previously encountered in 1958) is real, Bond boards a Spectrum Jet for Africa. Meanwhile, Satin Astro and Mars Man locate one of the surviving Seven Stars - Electro Girl; who is now 80 years old and lives in a Faraday Cage selling her surplus electricity to the National Grid. They reveal to her that in 2009 or 2010 a great catastrophe irreparably ruins the earth and by the year 2996, humanity exists in flying Overcities or domed citadels such as We. Earth is ruled by The Lord of Mars, a tyrant who controls the earth from his base on Mars. Electro Girl refuses to help them, and cannot provide any information as to the whereabouts of Vull. The Dugong submarine reaches Drake’s Passage, off the coast of Patagonia. They pass the musical utopia of Pepper’s Land and through the Riallaro Fog Bank which shrouds Lincoln Island. James Bond and the J-Series Agents reach Kor, and the reserve agent J-R4 helps Bond into the pool, granting him eternal life. The Murray Team continue their journey, passing through the islands of Spectralia (inhabited by ghosts), Coxuria (inhabited by pygmies), Figlefia (a vast and constant sex orgy), Fanattia (constantly arguing with each other) and Aleofane (where they use their fame to buy information). In Kor, James Bond is rejuvenated by the pool and looks forward to having “endless fun”. He begins by shooting agent J-R4 in the head, and activating a timed nuclear bomb at the pool. Bond and the J-Series agents leave Africa as the nuke explodes, destroying Kor and its pool. The Murray Team reach Lincoln Island and decide to approach underwater. However, they encounter Hugo Coghlan walking along the sea bed, who grabs the Dugong and carries it to the island. Issue 2: And An Age Of Giants, Adieu Issue 2 was published on September 12th 2018 by Top Shelf in the USA and on September 19th by Knockabout in the UK. Official synopsis of Issue 2: Opening with a 1919 deathmatch between two American superhumans in the ruins of Utopia, the second issue of Moore and O’Neill’s final comic series takes its readers on a breath-taking ride over a waterfall of storytelling styles, from a startling 21st century Lincoln Island and its current incarnation of the legendary Captain Nemo, through a New York coping with an ageing costume-hero population, to a London where a drastic escalation is commenced by the rejuvenated sociopath controlling MI5. All this, and a further reprinted adventure of 1960s super-team The Seven Stars awaits in issue two of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume IV: The Tempest. — Issue #2 in a 6-issue mini-series, each issue 32 pages in (mostly) full color, saddle stitched, 6 5/8” x 10 1/8” (standard comic-book size), $4.99 (US). Plot Summary In 2010 in the British Intelligence headquarters at Vauxhall, James Bond researches the history and previous incarnations of the League. Reading through the Black Dossier as well as additional documents pertaining to the League, Bond discovers that the last League controlled by the British government was the Victory Vanguard in the 1960s, and before that the Warralson Team in the 1940s. He works his way back through the League's history, through the 1898 Murray League, Gulliver's League and Prospero's Men. In 1919, in the ruins of Utopia in the South Atlantic, Hugo Danner and Hugo Hercules fight an epic duel. Hugo Danner reveals his vision of a perfect future inhabited only by his kind, but Hugo Hercules retorts that he is quarter-god, before brutally headbutting Danner, killing him. On Lincoln Island in 2010, Hugo Hercules brings the apprehended Dugong submarine ashore, throwing Mina Murray, Orlando and Emma Night onto the beach. Orlando runs up behind Hugo and tries attacking him with Excalibur, but the strike has no effect on him; in fact he barely notices the sword's impact. Hugo calls for reinforcements; they arrive in the form of Tacarigua (the current Ishmael) and The Pink Child. Murray and her League are taken to see Jack Dakkar, the current Nemo. In New York City in 2010, Marsman and Satin Astro pay a visit to Jim Logan (Captain Universe) who is now retired. Logan volunteers at a special retirement home/hospice for aged superheroes. He reveals to Satin and Marsman that he retired having lost his enthusiasm for superheroes after the world became overpopulated with them, and that he has some important information for them at the U.N. In Vauxhall, James Bond reads a dossier entitled 'Prospero's Men 1610-1696'. The document is shown to the reader as a double-page comic strip, written in iambic pentameter. In the strip, Prospero and his League (Ariel, Caliban, Orlando, Don Quixote, Mistress St. Clair and Captain Robert Owemuch) have sailed to the Blazing World on Owemuch's ship. Prospero declares the Blazing World as a refuge for fantastic beings, immune to the passage of time. Much to the shock of the others, Arial and Caliban assist Prospero in climbing overboard, whereby he walks over the ocean into the Blazing World, in the same way as Christian (a previous member of this League) had done previously (this is detailed in the New Traveller's Almanac). And like Christian before him, he instructs his companions to follow him. This document informs Bond of the existence and nature of the Blazing World. At Captain Universe's headquarters at the U.N. he shows Satin and Marsman an old reel of film footage from Kansas in 1920. The reel relates to America's response to the League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Les Hommes Mysterieux and Die Zwielichthelden. It shows a film director choreographing the moment where a baby Superman lands in Smallville and is found by his foster parents. The clip reveals that America's superheroes were in fact faked. Hugo Danner, America's only true superhuman had disappeared (due to the duel in 1919) and science heroes such as Tom Swyfte had declined, so America had to stage its superheroes as a result. Back at Vauxhall, Bond commissions Spectrum to build him a submarine with nuclear capabilities. Along with his J-Series agents, he sets off in his new submarine, heading for the Blazing World. On Lincoln Island, having been dressed in a selection of Janni Dakkar's old clothes, Murray and her team are addressed by Jack. He reveals that he knows a lot of information about them, including their involvement with the antichrist incident the previous year, and that they have visited the pool in Kor. The reason for this knowledge is Augustus Van Dusen - who in spite of being killed in 1925, left behind hundreds of thousands of punch cards after his death. In the 1990s, technology had advanced sufficiently to catch up with Van Dusen's brilliant brain, and his punch cards could be uploaded into a single mainframe - which collectively form an artificial copy of Van Dusen's consciousness - a literal 'Thinking Machine'. Van Dusen has become Lincoln Island's primary source of intelligence. Van Dusen explains that he has obtained the same intel regarding Emma Night and Kor as Bond had seen, and reveals to them that Kor's pool has been nuked, and that Night's three friends including Cathy Gale had been tortured into suicide. Orlando is furious about Kor's fate, and from this information Murray's team deduce who the culprit is - Bond. They also realise that Bond has made himself immortal, before destroying the pool to prevent anyone else from using it. Night swears to return to London to 'Avenge' her friends. Van Dusen also reveals that he has gained intel regarding a very recent catastrophe that occurred in the North Atlantic - the location of the Blazing World. Meanwhile, Bond and his agents reach the edge of the Blazing World, where he fires a nuke into it. The nuke disappears from their scanners, as it leaves the normal dimension of reality and enters the Blazing World. As the warhead detonates and The Blazing World is seen to be blown apart, Bond hums the famous 'James Bond' theme music to himself whilst musing that he has "fucked fairyland" and that they should be "back to London in time for breakfast". Issue 3: Dawn Is But Dark's Endeavour Issue 3 was published in December 2018 by Top Shelf in the USA and Knockabout in the UK. This issue includes a pair of 3D glasses, as in the previous volume The Black Dossier. Official synopsis of issue 3: Like something from an unbelievable parallel world where there were once comic publications exclusively for girls, this third jaw-dropping installment of Moore and O'Neill's astonishing swan-song takes us from a boarding school in Big Brother-dominated England to a civic ball with a Frankenstein monster in Toyland, pausing for some 1960s pop-art espionage and a breath-taking musical interlude along the way. Concluding with a demonstration of an unusual nuclear defense system (for which the reader will require 4-D spectacles thoughtfully provided) and containing Seven Stars classic "Showdown in Space," you dare not miss issue three of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. IV: The Tempest. -- Issue #3 in a 6-issue mini-series, each issue 32 pages in (mostly) full color, saddle stitched, 6 5/8” x 10 1/8” (standard comic-book size). Plot Summary On Lincoln Island in 2010, Mina Murray, Orlando and Emma Night discuss their plans with Jack Dakkar and his crew. Mina decides to go to the recently-nuked Blazing World aboard the Nautilus accompanied by Jack, whereas Orlando and Emma Night wish to return to Vauxhall, London aboard a Robur Jet, in order to kill James Bond. They each want revenge on Bond - Orlando because Bond destroyed the pool in Kor, and Night because her school friends (who later became her agents) were tortured and murdered by Bond. A flashback recalls Emma Night’s childhood in the Cliff House boarding school for girls during the Big Brother government. Cliff House is a girls’ school for espionage, similar to the boys’ school Greyfriars. Emma and her friends expose their P.E. teacher Miss Klebb as an enemy spy and have her sent to the Ministry of Love. Back in 2010 on board a Robur Stealth Jet, Orlando and Emma meet Jack Dakkar’s half-sister Greta Mors (the daughter of Hira Dakkar and Manfred Mors), before jumping from the plane in high-tech wing suits. Landing in snowy Broadgate, Kent, they enter a safehouse owned by Emma (and unknown to MI5) and discuss their plans to kill Bond. On Lincoln Island, Mina discusses with Jack their planned journey to the Blazing World. She suggests that they go via Megapatagonia in the Antarctic, as it is a shorter distance. However Augustus Van Dusen has discovered that Megapatagonia disappeared when the nuke was detonated, and so they must travel via the Arctic instead. Jack reveals to Mina that he plays the piano, and he performs a song about Mina’s relationship with Allan Quatermain. His new Nautilus is prepared for the voyage and they depart. Meanwhile, Carol Flane aka Electro Girl muses that she should get out of her faraday cage more often, and she decides to go and visit Jim Logan aka Captain Universe. In the retirement home where he volunteers, Logan meets Matthew Price aka Mind Man, who reveals that he met Vull the Invisible in 1955. Price reveals to Logan that Vull is in fact Mina Murray, and Logan decides that Satin Astro and Marsman need to know this information. Price uses his telekinetic abilities to contact Marsman and passes on the information about Vull. At MI5, James Bond and his J-Series agents discuss their next target. One of the agents suggests the “rabbit-hole in Oxford” - referring to the entrance to Wonderland (mentioned in the New Travellers Almanac). Two of Bond’s female assistants clock off for the night, and outside they are approached by Emma and Orlando, who strike up a deal to help them escape MI5, in exchange for the transferral of Emma’s ‘private archive’ to Greta Mors in the Kent safe house. Emma reveals to Orlando that the archive contains her personal collection of Murray Group souvenirs, including Edward Hyde’s skeleton and DNA. On board the Nautilus, Mina converses with Tacarigua, the current Ishmael. She informs Mina that they must make a polar approach to the Blazing World as the Southern route has been ravaged by the nuclear blast, and also because Jack wishes to dock at Toyland for a status update from its inhabitants. In London, Emma and Orlando track down Jason King, Emma’s former colleague and now running MI5 from its ’S Division’ while Bond is away with his J-Series agents. King recognises Night, and they take him to a nearby bar and get him drunk. Out of guilt, King gives them information, including the planned attack on the Oxford deanery (Wonderland) and the fact that Andrew Norton the Prisoner of London is due to appear in Hackney soon. Orlando then takes Emma to the Seven Stars’ headquarters in Fitzrovia Street, previously used by Orlando, Mina and Allan Quatermain in 1969. In Toyland, Mina, Jack and the crew are greeted by Queen Olympia and her husband, the duke of Toyland - Frankenstein’s Monster. Olympia tells Jack that since the nuclear blast, they have heard no news from The Blazing World, and fear the worst. The visiting party attends a diplomat’s ball hosted by Olympia, during which Mina converses with the duke (Frankenstein’s Monster) on the Dollhouse Palace’s balcony. He tells her that his and Olympia’s creators knew one another, and when Victor Frankenstein hounded his monster to the North Pole, the monster ended up in Toyland where he met Olympia and fell in love. Feeling lonely amongst only toys, the monster was gifted other Frankensteins by Olympia. As the visitors board the Nautilus to depart, Olympia reveals that the Galley-Wag and his Dutch Dolls had also set sail for The Blazing World from Toyland two days prior, aboard his ship The Rose Of Nowhere. However, they have not heard from him since. At the Seven Stars’ headquarters in London, Marsman and Satin Astro discuss the impending catastrophe. In the 30th century (where Satin travelled back from), the Martian warlord dominates the entire solar system, his dynasty being established on Earth in 2010. They both agree that they desperately need the assistance of Mina Murray (aka Vull), who was always the brains behind the Seven Stars. At this moment, Orlando and Emma walk into the headquarters, expecting to find it empty. Marsman attempts a telekinetic mind-control trick on Emma, but Orlando quickly punches him in the face, countering it. Satin and Emma point their guns at one another, as the scene ends with a stand-off. Mina and her party arrive at The Blazing World, and are met by the Galley-Wag, his Dutch Dolls, and Engelbrecht. The Blazing World itself is desaturated and appears in monochrome, and the Galley-Wag and Engelbrecht suggest that this may be because it was destroyed by the nuke and is reforming itself; the radioactivity draining away into hyperspace. Moreover, the many reported deaths in Megapatagonia are apparently being reversed too, due to some esoteric corruption of space-time. Mina deduces that this is Prospero’s doing. An Owl-Man confirms that this is the case, and that he himself was brought back from the dead. He offers to take the party to see Prospero. Leading them inside a citadel, they see Prospero standing motionless, before an intense, explosive light. The Owl-Man explains that Prospero has used his powers to ‘contain’ the nuclear blast, slowly reducing it down to what they see before them. He is reversing the explosion’s time, and “unhappening” it. Issue 4: If Fictions Fare Not True-- Issue 4 was published in January 2019 by Top Shelf in the USA and Knockabout in the UK. Official synopsis of issue 4: Legendary swords clash atop the Paris Opera in 1913, while almost a century later a declining London witnesses assassination attempts, summit meetings in Haggerston Park, and the catastrophic return of a 1960s super-adventurer. Elsewhere, in the four-dimensional territories adjacent to the North Pole, a lost Shakespeare play sees its first and last performance, while Queen Gloriana’s conjuror finally reveals the nature of his five-hundred-year-old game. Topping off an already heady mixture, this issue’s classic Seven Stars reprint depicts our halcyon heroes as “Captives of the Creepyverse”, another reason not to miss the unfolding of Moore and O’Neill’s fulgurant finale in issue four of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Volume IV, The Tempest. -- Issue #4 in a 6-issue mini-series, each issue 32 pages in (mostly) full color, saddle stitched, 6 5/8” x 10 1/8” (standard comic-book size). Plot Summary In 2010, in the MI5 headquarters, Jason King enacts his attempt to assassinate James Bond. He poisons Bond’s cup of tea, however Bond feeds the tea to the cat. King disposes of the evidence by feeding the dead cat through the shredder, and launches an exploding drone. He cannot control the drone properly and Bond escapes. Next, he rewires Bond’s office hoping to electrocute him, but Bond and the J-series agents requisition King’s office for their work, sending him to Bond’s office where he is electrocuted. As Bond and the agents discuss Les Hommes Mysterieux, King decides to resort to his ‘Plan B’- to shoot Bond in the face. In 1913, on the roof of the Paris Opera, Orlando confronts the albino Monsieur Zenith in the pouring rain. Orlando wields Excalibur, while Zenith is equipped with the howling black runesword Stormbringer. He reveals to Orlando that he was once Elric of Melniboné and encountered Orlando when he/she was known as Roland. Struggling to match Zenith in combat, Orlando calls down to Allan Quatermain to shoot Zenith with his elephant gun. However, Allan is stuck on a balcony just below, and cannot get a shot in. Zenith recognises Orlando as a fellow superhuman, and warns him that ordinary mortals will one day be devoured by their own dreams. He then reveals that the whole encounter has been merely a distraction, and that Fantomas will soon detonate his bomb beneath the opera house, before leaving Orlando and Allan. Deep below the opera house in the subterranean tunnels, Mina Murray and AJ Raffles encounter the deadly Fantomas, who speaks the words “I win.” before detonating his bomb, destroying the opera house. Back in 2010 in the Seven Stars' HQ, Orlando and Emma Night share information with Satin Astro and Marsman. Satin reveals that Orlando is still active in the year 2996, and is male, and the most-wanted space-pirate of the age. Orlando discloses his intention to meet with the soon-to-materialise Norton, while Satin demands to know where she can find Mina Murray, to which she is informed that Mina is in the Blazing World. Meanwhile, in the Blazing World, Mina and Jack Dakkar leave their allies to explore. They see many faerie-folk, who are all excitedly heading the the Globe Theatre to witness a performance of Shakespeare’s folio Faerie’s Fortunes Founded, a play about the formation of the League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (featured in The Black Dossier). In Haggerston Park, Hackney, East London, Orlando meets with Norton, Jerry Cornelius and ‘The Vegetative Buddha’. They reveal to Orlando that London is doomed, and that they are using the supernatural shift to escape their respective anchors to the city. Norton remarks that he is heading to Hastings, to resurrect Harold and re-stage the Battle Of Hastings, while Jerry Cornelius claims that he is going to The Sanctuary, off Fleet Street, which is “a stockade for made-up people”. Jerry gives Orlando his ‘Needle Gun’, and Orlando departs to rejoin Emma, and their assassination attempt on Bond. In New York, Jim Logan aka Captain Universe and Mind Man share a drink. Mind Man reads Logan’s mind – an act which he reveals he cannot stop himself from doing – and deduces that Logan wants to become Captain Universe once again, and assist Satin and Marsman. In the Special Victims Unit of the Aquanauts, Troy Tempest recounts his encounter with Mina, Orlando and Emma. He admits that his team sexually assaulted Orlando, and blames his marriage to his amphibious wife (Marina) which does not satisfy him sexually. Back at the Seven Stars HQ, Orlando returns and shares Norton and Cornelius’ grim predictions for the fate of London with the others. They move forward with their assassination of Bond, donning workmen’s outfits and heading for Vauxhall. At MI5 in Vauxhall, Bond discovers his secretaries have defected and taken Night’s League collection with them. However, the J-Series agents have discovered Mina’s journey to Lincoln Island. In the Blazing World, Mina and Jack watch the performance of Faerie’s Fortunes Founded. They discover that Prospero’s code number was originally 007. In the play, the half-faerie queen Gloriana assembles Prospero’s Men – the first incarnation of the League – and they learn that the whole history of the League (including Mina Murray leading her 1898 incarnation) was premeditated back in 1558. Disturbed by the play, Mina and Jack rejoin their companions. At MI5, the J-Series agents discuss how James Bond has become mad and unpredictable since bathing in the pool in Kor. Bond appears, and explains how it was Night that removed the League archive. However, he believes that Night is at Lincoln Island, and commissions a gadget-filled Bond car for his journey there. Suddenly, Jason King appears with a gun pointed at Bond’s head, ranting about his sister having been killed by Bond. Reacting quickly, Bond seizes the Scottish J-agent (Sean Connery) and uses him as a human shield, as King opens fire. King is then shot dead by the blonde J-agent (Daniel Craig). As King’s sister was at school with Night, Bond deduces that Night must be in London. Sighting Night’s van outside the building, the J-agents attack, but 'Lovey' (Roger Moore) is fatally wounded by the Needle Gun, and the van escapes. Bond is indifferent, as his new image-recognition software will identify those in the van. In the Blazing World, Mina and Jack discuss what they have seen. Mina portends that Gloriana had planned the entire League (including herself) back in the 1500s, possibly as a reaction to faerie’s banishment. They see a group of Lloigor, and Mina recounts that in 1959 – after herself, Allan and Orlando escaped into the Blazing World following the events of The Black Dossier – Allan had offended the Lloigor, and that they have had several unpleasant encounters with them over the years. Wandering into Prospero’s workshop, they see the head of Oliver Haddo (brought to the Blazing World by Mary Poppins in 2009). Mina remembers that Haddo had said to her that she would be the one to cause his “strange new aeon”, and that she “played a subtle game”. Returning to Tacarigua, Galley-Wag and the others, they find their party uneasy about the current situation. Orlando and Emma arrive back outside the Seven Stars HQ, and see a strange-looking vehicle. Satin and Marsman greet them and reveal that the vehicle is the Electrowagon – a specially-designed transport for Electro Girl, who has rejoined her former companions. They realise that King’s assassination attempt has failed, and that MI5 will be tracking them. In the ensuing confusion, Marsman uses his mind-control powers to penetrate the crowd of police and onlookers, and introduces them to Electro Girl’s driver, who opens the Electrowagon. Electro Girl emerges, and a chaotic situation transpires. Orlando argues with Satin about who the HQ belongs to (and that the HQ is being compromised by the conspicuous situation). Traffic police and onlookers heckle Electro Girl, causing her to become stressed (as she has been in isolation for years). Meanwhile, Bond and his agents watch the whole event on their security cameras. The stress of the situation becomes too much for Electro Girl, and she has an anxiety attack, which discharges an enormous electrical current across the area, electrocuting everyone in the vicinity. Back in the Blazing World, Prospero completes his un-making of the nuclear explosion, containing it within a small box. Mina, Jack and the others speak with Prospero, and he reveals that the various incarnations of the League have unwittingly played out his plans over the past 500 years. Gloriana appears, confirming their long-term plans. They knew that Orlando would ‘betray’ the knowledge of the pool in Kor – sharing immortality with others – and precipitate the catastrophes that have since transpired. They seek revenge for faerie being banished to the Blazing World, and they explain that Bond (and his ancestors, including Campion Bond) have unknowingly worked their will. Earth will be transformed according to their plans, with unspeakable supernatural horrors being unleashed upon humankind. Human civilisation will be ended, and the fantasies that it banished will be unleashed back upon it in the form of terrible nightmares. Learning of the true nature of Gloriana and Prospero’s aims, Mina and Jack decide that they have to get out of the Blazing World. Issue 5: The Fairy-Feller's Master-Stroke Issue 5 was published in March 2019 by Top Shelf in the USA and April 2019 by Knockabout in the UK. Official synopsis of issue 5: Ostensibly a cheap British reprint of pre-code American horror, this penultimate stop in Moore and O’Neill’s pyrotechnic farewell tour takes us from the tortured mind of artist Richard Dadd to a London swallowed by darkness; from a spectacular 3D struggle in the Blazing World to some jaw-dropping vengeance in Vauxhall and a conclusion that is out of this world. Meanwhile our Seven Stars finally come face to writhing mess with the monstrous menace of the ’Mass while providing origins for both Satin Astro and the Flash Avenger. Don’t miss the never-to-be-repeated cavalcade of wonders that is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV, The Tempest. -- Issue #5 in a 6-issue mini-series, each issue 32 pages in (mostly) full color, saddle stitched, 6 5/8” x 10 1/8” (standard comic-book size). Plot Summary In 2010 in the Blazing World, mentally ill artist Richard Dadd recalls his life. Born in 1817, he excelled as a painter and travelled Greece, Turkey, Syria and egypt with his mentor, Sir Thomas Phillips. In Egypt, the Egyptian god Osiris entered Dadd, beginning his mental downfall. Dadd murdered his father, convinced that he was the devil, and fled to Paris, where he was overpowered en-route when he tried to kill a fellow passenger. Committed to Bedlam and Broadmoor mental hospitals, the insane people around him exacerbated his visions of Faerie, he painted his miniature masterpiece of faerie art before dying of lung disease. After his death he found himself in the Blazing World in the body of a gnome, awaiting the day when Faerie would be unleashed on humankind. In 2010, that day comes to pass. In London, the unleashing of Prospero and Gloriana's plan has resulted in a total blackout of electricity. The city is in darkness and its inhabitants despair. At MI5, emergency generators provide some limited power, but not enough to properly trace Murray's team. James Bond orders his agents to search for them, while he takes Q's new supercar for a spin. Meanwhile, at the Seven Stars HQ, the team plots their next move. Orlando has had word, via Greta Mors, of the situation in the Blazing World. Everyone is returning to Lincoln Island and Mors is coming to get them. Agents J2 and J5 arrive at the HQ, but they are mind-controlled into believing that one another are Night and King, and they shoot each other dead. At MI5, the other J-agents learn of the unleashing of the Blazing World's horrors all over the world. In the Blazing World, Mina, Galley-Wag, Jack and the Nautilus crew attempt to return to the Nautilus and flee. However, the faeries fish a Demogorgan - a leviathan of populism - out of the water, obstructing their path. Hugo strips naked and begins to fight it, while Tacarigua fires off some rockets into its eyes and the Galley-Wag uses his deadly roar. However, none of these attacks are effective. Then, Engelbrecht jumps in with the Grim Reaper's scythe and beheads the beast. They use its body as a bridge to proceed. The Nautilus passes by a heavily-fortified Toyland. Making radio contact, they discover that Olympia and Toyland have sided with Prospero. Jack reveals to Mina that he has not been honest with her about his new Nautilus. Meanwhile, Mind Man and James Logan decide to head to London to assist Satin and Marsman. Mind Man repeatedly has a vision of 3:08am for reasons he cannot explain. The only way to reach London before 3:08am requires Logan to transform into Captain Universe once again. They fly over the Atlantic, spotting mythical monsters such as Godzilla in the ocean. Arriving in London, they suspect that MI5 is a cause of serious danger. At 3:08am, as James Bond watches from afar, Captain Universe poly-locates into thousands of copies of himself and reduces the MI5 building to rubble, killing the J-agents within. As the two arrive at the Seven Stars HQ and meet Satin, Marsman, Electro Girl, Orlando and Emma, Mors' stealth jet is waiting to take them all to Lincoln Island. As they take off, Bond activates the cloaking device on his flying car, and follows them. On Lincoln Island, the Nautilus and Rose of Nowhere arrive just as Van Dusen briefs the inhabitants of the goings-on around the world relating to Prospero's plan - including a war between the Taliban and the Giants, beasts from Wonderland emerging in Oxford and the rise of Cthulhu in New Zealand. Lincoln's inhabitants head to the island's volcano, where Jack reveals to Mina that his submarine was not the Nautilus. As Orlando, Emma and the Seven Stars arrive on Greta Mors' ship, Jack reveals the true Nautilus - a spaceship. Issue 6: Then, The Immortal Blue… Issue 6 was published on 17th July 2019 by Top Shelf in the US and on 24th July 2019 by Knockabout in the UK. Official synopsis of issue 6: ''In Moore and O’Neill’s final comic-book, this issue masquerading as a British science-fiction weekly, the plot-strands of our concluding volume and loose ends from twenty years of continuity are tied in an ingenious starry bow, as Mina Murray and her legendary confederates transition from the world of fiction past and present to the world of fiction future. Planets end in visual spectacle, lovers are united in the matrimonial event of the millennium, and deadly enemies draw close in the conclusion of their fatal dances. This is your last call for the immaculate crescendo of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV, The Tempest. -- Issue #6 in a 6-issue mini-series, each issue 32 pages in (mostly) full color, saddle stitched, 6 5/8” x 10 1/8” (standard comic-book size). Plot Summary In 1904 in Sussex, England, Mina Murray visits a retired Sherlock Holmes. She asks Holmes to serve as advisor to her League, but he firmly declines, stating that he feels extraordinary beings are a detriment to humanity – as even the good ones end up making things worse. He thanks Mina for eliminating Moriarty in 1898. In 2010 on Lincoln Island, the inhabitants prepare to evacuate earth aboard the Nautilus. Mina is reunited with Satin Astro, who warns her of the catastrophes to come. The earth will be destroyed, followed by the moon, Venus and Mars. Mars will be ruled by a warlord who eventually runs the entire solar system. Meanwhile, James Bond arrives on Lincoln in his submarine-car, kills several guards and sneaks aboard the Nautilus in disguise as a janitor. Van Dusen reports on the fantastical apocalypse on earth – explaining that it has affected every country. Jack Dakkar reveals his plan to burn Lincoln Island to the ground as they depart, to prevent its secrets being discovered by the new inhabitants of earth. As the island is destroyed, those aboard the Nautilus climb into stasis pods, and it launches, leaving earth’s atmosphere accompanied by the Galley-Wag aboard the Rose of Nowhere. As the Nautilus passes the moon, they discover that the Selenites are strategically attacking human bases there, while carrying the frozen body of Selwyn Cavor. Mina explains that when she visited the moon in 1964, she ended the war between the Selenites and the Amazons (who needed a male sperm donor to ensure their survival and had stolen Cavor’s body, the Selenites’ god) by returning Cavor to the Selenites and giving the Amazons the body of Moriarty. As such, the Amazons and their army of Moriartys have captured human space bases on the moon and launched all of their acquired spaceships as an attack fleet heading for Venus. The Amazon fleet commandeers Venus’s ships, increasing its size and attack power, and continues towards Mars. Captain Universe proposes marriage to Electro Girl, while Satin Astro and Marsman head to Mars to investigate and report back to the Nautilus. They are greeted with scenes of absolute destruction and carnage, as Mars is ravaged by the fleet. They travel across the planet, seeing the extent of the damage to its various colonies, until they reach the Stendahl House, where they discover that the fantastical beings released on earth by Prospero and Gloriana have been released here, too. They deduce that the whole invasion (including the establishment of Obelisks on the moon to give it an atmosphere, and the settling of the Amazons there) have been part of Prospero’s plan. Mina’s mission to the Moon in 1964 was the battleground being prepared and set up on his behalf. With horror, Mina realises that she has set Prospero’s apocalypse in motion herself. She finally comes clean about the sperm donor she gave to the Amazons – professor James Moriarty. Reports reach the Nautilus that one of these Moriartys – named Lamarr the First – has been established as the new emperor – the first Lord of Mars. They realise that the catastrophe that Satin Astro travelled back in time to prevent, has not been avoided. Defeated, the Nautilus and her crew sail away into the unknown void of space. The Nautilus flies past Jupiter on the wedding day of Captain Universe and Electro Girl. Emma announces that she has something to attend to, and leaves Mina and Jack. She enters her quarters, followed by Bond. However, she already knew that he was aboard the ship, as the rescused MI5 secretaries had smelt his cologne, and she prepares an ambush. Vastly overpowering him in melee combat, Emma destroys his ribs, shoulder and finally brain, before saying that she refuses to stoop to his level by leaving him in this state – immortal, yet paralysed. She snaps his neck, killing him. Mina apologises to Jack for causing such a terrible situation, and for overcomplicating things. He responds that she has only complicated things, “in the most glorious of ways”. They kiss, and head into the wedding venue. Captain Universe and Electro Girl are married, and Hugo Coghlan, who is acting as security guard, tells Jack that two men are trying to gain entry. The two men turn out to be Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, Hugo throws them out of the airlock and they drift away into space. In Epilogue 1, after the events of The Seven Stars, Captain Universe gives Mina a tour of his space base. Reflecting on the end of the Seven Stars, he wonders whether they achieved anything. He announces that he is retiring and moving to America, and Mina returns to the MI5 League. In Epilogue 2, in Dundee in 1968, Satin Astro and Marsman arrive at a halfway-house for super heroes, where they intend to lay low. However, the environment there is so awful that they agree to move to Bigsburg, USA and hide out there instead. In Epilogue 3, in the Universarium on New Lincoln in 2164, Mina watches another invasion fleet head towards earth. She reflects to her companion that life is better than ever on New Lincoln – that Captain Universe recreated Ayesha’s pool from Kor to grant them immortality, and that she is married to Jack and he is a successful space pirate alongside Orlando (who now calls herself Sally Quasar). Her companion turns out to be a resurrected Edward Hyde, who has been created from the skeleton of the original. His behaviour and temperament are improved over the original’s, but he has retained his love of fighting Martians. Mina and Edward dance together to Alan Moore’s ‘Immortal Love’ on the jukebox. '''' Extra Material Seven Stars As with previous volumes of the League, Volume 4 includes supplemental extra material at the end of each issue. In this case, the extra material is a six-part comic series called Seven Stars. This comic is presented in the style of 1960s science fiction comics, with black and white artwork and an antiquated tone. Retiring Types The hardcover release of Volume 4 includes a 4-page extra comic at the very end, after the epilogues, entitled Retiring Types. This is a short narrative starring Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill as they reflect on the League saga and their own careers.Category:Media